Israel's blockade

There's not much I can say about the mess the Israeli government has made for itself that Spencer Ackerman doesn't say in this post. The only thing I'd add is that the international reaction to Israel's actions is evidence that its blockade of Gaza never made much sense in the first place.

So long as people didn't really know that the Israeli government was using force to deny residents of Gaza fresh meat, dried fruit, canned fruit, clothing fabric, chickens, cattle, coriander, musical instruments and much more, Israel's blockade was relatively safe. But the more that the nature of the blockade is revealed, the less support there is for it ("you mean it's not just stopping weapons?") and the worse Israel's military actions in defense of the blockade look. Further complicating matters for Israel, the more publicity the blockade gets, the more people begin to understand why ordinary Palestinians hate Israel so much, and the role that Israeli policy has in delaying peace.

Blockades must have military benefit. Currently toys, children's text books, chocolate are blocked. The motivation seems to be to inflict psychological pain - such as by harming their children - as well as to block weapons. Their is no legal nor moral justification for the nonmilitary aspects of the blockade, and tormenting children to motivate their parents is counterproductive.